It is common practice in many surgical procedures to bathe the region of surgical activity, where the surgical procedure is being performed, with liquid. The liquid may be water or some other liquid. The liquid may be provided to cleanse the region by removing debris, such as small pieces of tissue cut away by a surgeon during a surgical procedure, from the region.
The liquid may also be provided to sanitize the region, where there is danger of infection during the surgical procedure.
The liquid may further be provided to cool the region, such as in dental procedures where cooling liquid is directed towards the point at which the dentist's drill contacts the teeth. The cooling liquid reduces the temperature of the teeth during drilling, thereby reducing the discomfort associated with such dental procedures.
During arthroscopic surgery as typically performed on the knee, the liquid may be confined within the knee by the patient's skin. However, there is inevitably some leakage of liquid at the incision through which the liquid is supplied to the knee interior; the need exists to evacuate that liquid from the area outside the knee which is proximate to the region of surgical activity.
Heretofore, such cleansing and antiseptic liquids have typically been permitted to collect on the floor of an operating room when such liquids are used in general surgical procedures. A disadvantage attendant to the conventional practice of permitting the cleansing or other liquid to collect on the operating room floor is that the liquid sometimes creates hazardous footing conditions, contributing to slipping and sliding by operating room personnel during the operating procedure with resultant danger to the patient.
For dental procedures, suction devices are placed into the mouth to remove cooling water. These suction evacuators are reasonably effective but have an attendant disadvantage of producing significant noise as the cooling water is evacuated from the patient's mouth.